The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-01-01

tent.
Iu some countries even the fox is con-
sidered a delicacy; in the Arctic regions,
where fresh meat is scarce. when judi
ciously made into pie, it is considered
equal to any rabbit, under the same
conditions. ever bred on the Sussex
downs. But. strange to say, the Esqui.
mau dogs, which will devour almost
every thing else, will not touch fox.
Cats and dogs readily find purchasers
and consumers in China, where they
are hung up in the butchers shops, to-
gether with badgers tasting like wild
boar-and other oddities of food.
In the South Seas, too, dog is a
favorite dish, and a puppy stew is a
royal feast in Zanzibar; but it is only
fair to say that where dog is eaten il
is especially fattened for the table and
fed only on milk and such like cleanly
diet. The Australian native dog, or
dingo, is eaten by the blacks, but by no
one else; and South African will give
a COW for a good-sized mastiff. The
American panther and the wildcat OF
Louisiana are said to be excellent eat.
ing; so is the puma, which is so like
veal in flavor that one hardly knows
the difference. Lions flesh, too, is
almost identical with veal in color,
taste and texture. Bears paws were
long Il German delicacy, and the flesh
is held equal or superior to pork, the
fat being as white as snow. The
tongue and hams are cured, but the
head is accounted worthless and
thrown away. The badger tastes
like wild boar. The Australian
kangaroo is not much inferior to
venison, and kangaroo-tail soup is bet,
ter than half the messes which pass in
London under the name of ox-tail
soup. flashed wallaby is a dish no
one need disdain, and there is a small
! species of kangaroo as good as any
hare ever cooked. An Australian ma
tive banquet is an odd mixture. Kan
CARGO and wallaby, opossums and fly
ing squirrels, kangaroo rats, wombats
and bandicoOts represent the pieces de
resistance, while rats. mice. snakes,
snails, large white maggots, worms
and grubs form the little dishes and
most favored entrees. A nice. fat
marmot is a treat-why not? They
are quite pure feeders.
The muskrat of Martinique is eaten,
though indescribably loathsome to II
European; but the slick rats of the SUI
gar cane plantations make one of the
most delicate fricassees imaginable, so
tender, plump. clearly and luscious
are they. The Chinese are in rat
paradise in California, where the rats
are enormously large, highly favored
and very abundant, rat-soup being
considered by all right-minded Celes-
tails to beat oX-tail or gravy soup hol-
low. The Indians eat the beaver,
which is said to be like pork, and por-
cupine is fine favorite with the Dutch
and Hottentots of the Cape, and with
the Hudson Bay trappers, and, indeed,
with all the inhabitants of the countries
where the creature is found, the flesh
being good and delicate, and, more
over, accounted exceedingly nutritious.
Elephants feet, picked in strong
toddy vinegar and cayenne pepper, are
considered in Ceylon an Apician lux
ury. The trunk is said to resemble
! buffalo's hump, and the fat is so highly
priced by the Bushmen that they will
go almost any distance for it. Hippo
potamus fat is also considered treat.
When sailed it is thought superior to
our breakfast bacon, and the flesh is
both palatable and nutritious, the fat
being used for all the ordinary uses of
butter. Birds are of large Importance
in the supplies of human food, and not
only birds, but birds nests as well, at
least with the Chinese, whose dainties
are always peculiar. These nests are
brought from Java and Sumatra, and
are like tibrous, ill-concocted isinolass,
inclining to red, about the size of a
gooses egg and as thick as silver
spoon. When dry they are brittle and
wrinkled and worth twice their weight
, in silver. This nest, which is of the
sea swallow (Hirundo esculenta), is the
only edible one known. Many are the
delicious morscls afforded by birds.
The hcccatico in the fig season; the
bronze winged pigeon of Australia,
when the acacia seeds are ripe; the
young, fat, hideous diablotin or goat
sucker, if taken when tender nesting,
and the same bird, when older, if taken
when the palms are in fruit; the rice
bird, of South Carolina, when the rice
is ripening; and the ortolan, mere lump
of idealized fat that it is-these are
among the most celebrated of the
smaller tid-bits, not forgetting the
snipe, the quail and the woodcock of
our own land.
Some people eat insects, the grub of
the palm weevil being held in much
favor in the East and West Indies, and
the grubs of most beetles in some other
quarters of the glole. The Moors think
a fine, fat locust superior even to
pigeon, and the Hottentots make soup
of their eggs. The thrifty Chinese first
wind off the cocoon, and then send the
chrysalis of the silk-worm to the table.
Spiders are delicacies of the desert
kind to the Bushmen, snails also hav-
ing many partisans. The Chinese
gloat over sea slug or beche de mer,
and a dish of certain sea worm is one
of the events of life to the jewellers in
the islands of the South Seas. The peo-
pie of Chilli eat barnacles as we eat
whelks, and the Hottentots devour
handfuls of roasted caterpillars, which
taste like sugared cream or almond
paste, and stand to them in the place
of sugar plans and comfts. What a
blessing it would be if we could persuade
our rising population to exchange sweet
meats and lozenges for nice Young